


The Seelie's Switch

by Fluxx



Series: The Spook Cruise, 2017 [13]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Genderswap, Halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-01-25 11:51:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12530700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluxx/pseuds/Fluxx
Summary: Upon their return to the Institute, the Shadowhunters come across a peculiar trick-or-treater. Too tired to deal with the little girl, Jace grumpily answers her request with "trick," inadvertently inviting a rather awkward problem upon him and his friends.Prompt response for The Spook Cruise 2017:Shadow Squad + Genderswap.Submit a prompt for The Spook Cruise!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Unbreakable_Vow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unbreakable_Vow/gifts).



> This is my first time writing for the genderswap theme - I hope I did it well! As I wrote, I tried to remain mindful of the transgender perspective, and all the nuances, concerns, and issues which come along with one's body not quite aligning with one's being. I hope I was able to respect these elements and themes, and if I did not or if there's any way in which I could do so more effectively in future works I hope you will please, please reach out to me and let me know! If you do not feel comfortable commenting here, everyone is always welcome to send me an ask or message over on [tumblr](https://constantfluxx.tumblr.com) ❤︎

“Trick or treat~?”

The four Shadowhunters stopped dead in their tracks, hesitantly turning to glance over their shoulders at the young, sweet voice that had sang out from behind them. They stared at the child, puzzling over her question for a long while until Clary at last finally replied, “I’m sorry, what was that?”

The little girl beamed up at them. “Trick or treat?” she repeated.

She was dressed in a cheap, knee-length dress of layered, sheer fabric. Her hair was done up in braids and decorated with bows, and glittering purple-and-pink makeup danced across her round, cherub-like cheeks. A pair of wings flopped unevenly from her back, a kind of hose material stretched over thin, wire frames, the whole piece hung from her arms by thin, elastic bands. One hand held out a plastic bucket shaped after a Jack-o-Lantern, and the other clutched a tiny, sparkling blue stick that ended in a thick, pearlescent star stuck upon a tuft of white down feathers.

Clary smiled wearily at her, crouching precariously to be a bit more level with the little girl. “You’re a fairy princess, are you?” she asked, guiltily eyeing the girl’s empty bucket.

“A fairy, yes!” the child giggled, moving her bucket closer to Clary. “Trick or treat?”

Jace’s patience was growing thin. Beaten, worn, and covered in a mixture of sweat, blood, and demon ichor, all of them were far too exhausted to be dealing with a random child’s Halloween antics, to be honest. He simply voiced their weariness the soonest, and the loudest, reaching down to pull Clary back up to a stand. “Look, kid, do we look like we have any candy on us?”

Izzy glared at him. “Jace, be _nice_ ,” she hissed, though there was something in her tone which dually thanked him for the interjection. Without it, she imagined Clary would have conversed with the kid all night long, and it’d be well past midnight before any of them finally got to shower.

The girl turned her large, pleading eyes to Alec. So far, he’d remained withdrawn and silent, arms folded across his chest. His eyes narrowed at the little girl, trying to ignore the way her innocent charm tugged at his heartstrings. Children had always claimed a soft spot in his heart, but something felt off with this one in particular - something unseen, unheard, unfelt.

“So… trick, then?” she somberly asked, her long lashes drifting lazily up and down her eyes.

“Yeah, sure,” Jace grumbled, urging Clary towards the rest of the group before turning around himself. “Trick.”

Still watching the little girl, Alec was the only one to catch the fleeting gleam in her eyes as a wicked grin broke across her face. “Okay!” she chirped, half-hopping after Jace and lifting her toy wand. “Trick!”

“Huh?” Jace grunted, jerking away from the sudden touch of the plastic star to the flesh of his wrist. Whirling upon the child, he meant to irritably scold her, but already the girl had turned and began skipping off, her bucket swinging haphazardly from the crook of her arm and her wings bouncing erratically from her back. He rolled his eyes, then turned to lead them the rest of the way into the Institute. “Kids. What a _nightmare_.”

Alec woke the next morning feeling… heavy, strangely enough. Probably because he’d spent the night at the Institute, he figured. Sleeping simply wasn’t the same without Magnus by his side, but by the time they’d actually finally gotten back from the mission he’d been barely awake enough to shed his soiled clothes, much less make the trek back to the loft. He groaned, rolling onto his side to try and eek out a few more minutes’ sleep.

He frowned. His arm felt… _higher_  than it should be. Just how many covers had he slept with, anyway? He couldn’t be too surprised - he had to make up for the absence of another body, after all. He peeked an eye open to check…

…then _shrieked_. A horrified hand clapped against his mouth the very moment the sound escaped him. Meanwhile, he’d thrown himself out of bed with such frenzy his feet got caught in the twist of his sheets and he crashed upon the floor. Still, the pain that now throbbed through his rear and the back of his head did nothing to quell the panic exploding through his every limb. He shot to his feet and scrambled across the room, barreling his way into view of the room’s mirror.

_No way. It’s impossible. It can’t be._

And yet, as he stood staring at the reflective surface, eyes glazing slowly up and down the figure staring back at him, a deep revulsion twisted his innards, and a hand moved to cover his mouth in stunned horror.

“By the Angel,” he whispered, too shocked by what he was seeing to be bothered by the far-too-honeyed sway of his voice. Full hips, smoothed limbs, rounded breasts… _I’m… a woman… ?!?!_

“Alec!”

He jolted out of his stupor at the voice, diving towards his dresser to frantically rummage through the sparse pile of clothes he kept at the Institute. “J-Just a sec!” he yelled back, lowering his voice as much as could to try and keep it normal-sounding. He was… mostly successful, but it still wasn’t _right_ , a fact that irritated him more than he cared to admit.

In any case, he had far more pressing concerns. He’d managed to find a shirt that had been large enough on him that it could handle his newly-added mass, though the way it stretched was rather… well, obscene. Unfortunately, _none_  of his jeans came even close to making it over the curve of his swollen hips, and all of his sweatpants were at the loft. At the very least, he wore his boxers baggy enough that they fit him now with still just the slightest bit of wiggle-room. He’d have to make do with that, though he didn’t see how in the nine Hells he was going to be able to even leave the Institute at this rate.

_Maybe Magnus can portal me home, and then—_

“ALEC! By the Angel, _open the door_!!!”

Alec practically tripped over his room’s sparse furniture in his mad dash to answer the door. He threw himself against it, hand grasping the metal knob between two clawed fingers, and finally yanked his door open, still wide-eyed and panicking.

Immediately, a blush consumed his face, much to his embarrassed frustration. Some guy was staring back at him - he quickly looked Alec head-to-toe, bringing Alec to throw his arm across his chest. “Wh-Who the Hell are you?!” he demanded, half-shied behind his door. He’d been expecting… Well, he wasn’t really sure who, because the voice hadn’t sounded anything like Jace, but at least someone he recognized from the Institute. This person certainly _did_  look familiar, but in a way which disturbed him to the core: aside from the hair that flowed like an inky river down to just below his shoulders, the man looked uncomfortably similar to Alec himself.

After a moment of shock, the man suddenly smirked, then reached out to comb his fingers in Alec’s hair. “Damn, I’d look pretty cute with short hair.”

Without a second thought, Alec smacked the hand away from him. “What the _fuck_  do you—” He broke off when his eyes fell to the man’s chest, then widened at the thick, black Nephilim rune situated perfectly centered between his pecs. His expression grew wide with realization, causing the man to laugh as Alec finally gasped, “… _Izzy_?!”

Izzy laughed, then pushed her way past Alec, ignoring her brother’s endured stupor. “The one and only, big brother!” She turned and eyed him again, chuckling, “…Big _sister_? Hmm…”

Alec scowled, grabbing the nearest thing to him - the thigh holster hanging on the wall, apparently - and throwing it at her. “This isn’t funny, Iz! What the hell happened to us?!”

“Not just us,” she clarified, catching the thigh holster easily enough and turning it over thoughtfully in her hands. “I just came from Jace and Clary’s room. Imagine how awkward _that_  would have been to wake up to!” The moment she mentioned it, she looked up and tapped her chin in thought. “You think Clary swings both ways?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t _care_ ,” Alec grumbled, snatching his thigh holster out of his sister’s hands. “What are we going to do? I can’t go out looking like this!” As if there were any question about what he referred to, he gestured wildly up and down his body, his exasperation clear in the erratic movement.

“No kidding,” Izzy remarked, her face making no attempt to hide her opinion of his outfit. Turning around, she started stripping off her clothes - her black slacks and a peep-holed top that now hung a little loose on her now-squared body. “Come on, you can wear this, and I’ll borrow yours.”

Alec quickly shut the door and scurried over to his sister, catching her shirt mid-air and gawking at it. “You gotta be kidding me.”

She turned to him with a raised brow, plucking the sleeve of his too-tight shirt. “Unless you’d rather wear _that_  and have your tits bursting at the seams all day.”

 _Absolutely not._  Alec glared at Izzy, then grumpily pulled off his shirt and replaced it with his sister’s. To his great relief, she’d modified it to contain its own bra pads, smoothing everything out nicely without him having to endure a too-tight chest harness digging into his skin on all sides. The top fit him perfectly, as did her slacks, and when he turned around to observe himself in the mirror he was relieved to find everything as normal-looking as possible… save for the part where he was still _quite_  female.

“Alright,” Izzy sighed, fastening Alec’s belt around her hips and straightening out the shirt she’d commandeered. The look she gave her reflection seemed none-too-pleased with the outfit, but it’d have to suffice. She strode past him to the door, the silver bangle hanging about her wrist one of the few things still betraying her true identity. “Let’s find the other two and figure out what we’re going to do about this.”

Alec sighed with grateful relief, grabbing his bow, quiver, and thigh holster and rushing out after her. “Yes. _Please_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not quite done with this one yet, but wanted to go ahead and post what I had so far because I'm out of town for the weekend and didn't want to hold things up too much. Stay tuned! :)


	2. Chapter 2

Izzy and Alec made their way hastily through the Institute's halls, careful to not make eye contact with anyone lest they draw any more unwanted attention than they already  _were_. It helped that they bee-lined straight to Alec's office - whatever they were up to, the other Shadowhunters figured it must be important. To Alec's frustration, however, it seemed a pair of Shadowhunters were in apparent need of an audience with the Head of the Institute. As they strode swiftly down the hall, Alec surveyed the pair of them as best he could, running through every excuse he could think of to try and convince them to leave. At first, he'd mistaken one of them for Lydia, what with the woman's blonde hair and eerily familiar air, but upon closer inspection he saw the features weren't quite right - her hair was shaved on three sides, for example - and her eyes gave off a golden shine rather than Lydia's blue. Beside her stood a small-framed boy, somehow wiry despite the roundness of his face, the fire-red explosion of hair around his head only emphasizing the anxiety in his green eyes.

If Alec hadn't been swimming in a world of panic, the truth of the situation would have smacked him full-force across the face. As it was, he fixed a glare upon them and irritably barked, "The Head of the Institute's busy. If you need him, you'll have to—"

" _Is_ he?" the woman remarked with a raised brow, her arms folding across her hefty chest. "Cause I'm pretty sure I'm staring right at him." When Alec offered her nothing more than intense, panicking silence, she rolled her eyes and continued in surmounting exasperation, "Seriously? You don't recognize me  _at all_?"

"To be fair," the man beside her chimed in, "You  _do_ look awfully different as a girl."

She passed him a sultry smirk. "But still drop-dead gorgeous, right?"

It was just the thing Alec needed to clue him in to the situation, much to his sister's bemusement. He sighed, then yanked his office's door open to hurry inside. "Jace, Clary," he muttered in greeting under his breath. "Let's just hurry up and figure out what the hell is going on."

"Actually, I think I have an idea about that," Izzy piped up, flouncing along after Jace and Clary.

In the back of his mind, Alec marveled how she could possibly remain so  _bouncy_ , even as a guy. He didn't mention it, however, and instead simply rose his hand to emptily gesture through the air between them. "Well, go on. Not like we've got anything else at the moment."

Her eyes sparkled wildly between them - she was clearly enjoying herself, far more so than anyone else. "Anyone smell anything funny this morning?"

Clary made a face. "Jace left his socks on the nightstand.  _Again._ How do they even  _get_ there in the first place?! It's totally ridic—"

"Anything  _else_?" Izzy interrupted before the two of them could get into an argument. She turned to her brother, who only shrugged and cluelessly shook his head. Izzy pouted, disappointed - but admittedly a little smug - at their oblivion. "The air smelled like honey. A very  _bitter_ honey." Even still, her words seemed to draw not an ounce of insight or inspiration, so she explained, "It's  _Seelie_ magic. And it's particularly potent, too."

"A Seelie did this to us?" Alec gawked. "But, when did...  _Oh_." He turned a glare upon Jace, who for once in his life shied up a bit. The four of them fell quiet, reflecting upon the prior night, and the little fairy girl. As in, the little  _actual fairy_ girl, apparently.

"Okay, well, how do we fix it?" Jace asked, eager to get the attention moved off of him and his late-night brashness. "I mean, I'm sure I can find plenty of ways to enjoy myself like this—" He broke off briefly as Clary smacked him. "—but even  _I_ don't want to be stuck like this forever!"

"I don't know," Izzy confessed. "But, you know who I bet  _would_ know... ?"

Slowly, all eyes trailed over to Alec. His own went wide with deep horror. "No.  _No_. Absolutely not." He turned to Izzy and grabbed her shoulders, desperate. "Come on, there has to be  _someone_ else? Meliorn, maybe - you're still in contact with him, aren't you?"

"Not exactly," Izzy grumbled, plucking his hands off her. "And besides, I doubt he'd be very much inclined to undo one of his fellows' tricks."

"C'mon, Alec, what's the big deal?" Jace urged. He took a moment to look his parabatai head-to-toe, then smirked. "You make a pretty hot lady. I'm fairly confident he'll enjoy what he sees."

Clary saw Alec's surmounting discomfort and stepped in before things got too heated between him and Jace. Reaching out to lay a hand upon his arm, she gently replied, "He's our best chance at fixing all of this. What's more, you can contact him directly and he can portal us straight to him, meaning we won't risk anyone else seeing us like this."

Alec met her gaze, and saw his distaste for his new body reflected back at him. Knowing she held similar feelings about it all helped - he could trust her motives, at the very least - but even that was still only a portion of the problem. On some level, he imagined Jace was right, and... Honestly? He didn't want to even  _think_ about the possibility Magnus would like him like this. What if he even  _preferred_ it? It wove a hornet's nest of anxiety through his gut.

Unfortunately, he ultimately knew the three of them were right. Magnus was their best chance at undoing all of this... He'd just have to go for it, and place all of his trust in Magnus's love and support for him -  _him_ , not his body. He had to have faith that Magnus seeing him like this wouldn't change anything between them.

"Alright," he finally answered, releasing a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He turned from them to pull out his cell and shoot Magnus a quick text - when he did, he saw a series of texts he'd missed from a very worried Warlock, and immediately twisted with guilt. An apology was in order first and foremost, and then the request for a portal - everything would be explained the moment he and the others arrive at their loft.

Pocketing the phone, he turned back to his friends. "I let him know, but I'm not sure when he'll see it - he might be busy with a client right now. In the meantime—"

But there wouldn't  _be_ a meantime, a large, yellow-orange portal suddenly swirling to life beside them. Alec's jaw tightened, admittedly somewhat disappointed there hadn't been a longer delay before he'd have to face Magnus like this. His eyes flickered over to Clary, and he quickly nodded towards the swirling vortex. "You go first. You're the most recognizable."

She grinned at him, flicking her long, fiery waves over her broadened shoulders. "What, because I'm the only ginger in this entire Institute?" she chuckled. She didn't argue, however, handsomely striding through the portal in full confidence, as if to show Alec there was nothing to fear.

Predictably, Jace went next, hurrying after her in a mild panic. "Clary, wait!" he called, darting after her.

Izzy rolled her eyes at him, then turned to offer her brother a reassuring smile and squeeze of his arm. "Relax. It'll be fine, I promise." She leaned over and hugged him, then turned to step through to the loft herself.

Alec steadied himself with a deep breath, then glanced down at his phone, finding the text Magnus had sent him just after opening the portal.

_See you soon ❤︎_

He smiled, then pocketed the phone, finally ready to face Magnus and get this taken care of once and for all.


	3. Chapter 3

Magnus wasn't really sure what to expect, pacing frantically back and forth across the loft's foyer. Alec had told him the mission would run late last night, and so he'd plan on staying at the Institute, but not hearing from Alec all morning had put him in something of a tizzy, worsened now with the news that something had gone wrong. Alec hadn't been specific about what, just that they'd been set upon by a curse Isabelle suspected was Seelie in nature. Of course, Magnus had begun creating the portal to bring them all here at once, even before Alec's text asking for help had finished sending. Now, it whipped about in the living room behind him, mirroring the torrential anxiety gripping his chest.

The minute a silhouette appeared within the portal, Magnus whirled, rushing to its side with wide eyes. "Alec?!" he cried, but his hopes were swiftly dashed as a man much shorter than his Alec stepped out into the livingroom, his long, fiery hair whipping at his shoulders in the portal's wind.

The young man turned to offer Magnus an awkward, feeble smile. "Um... Hi, Magnus!" he replied with a tiny wave, his voice just barely audible over the portal's roar.

Magnus rose a finger, his lips parting in question, but his answer came soon thereafter, a short-haired blonde woman practically falling out of the portal and rushing to the man's side. " _Clary_!" she cried in exasperation. "You seriously need to stop rushing in to things like that!"

The male - Clary, apparently - rolled his..  _her_... eyes at the woman. "It's  _Magnus_. Besides, Alec told him..." She trailed off, green eyes suddenly filled with urgent alarm as they turned on Magnus. "...right? He  _did_ tell you what happened?"

The scrunch of Magnus's face was enough to confirm that no, indeed, Alec  _hadn't_ told him, but before he could remark on the matter another figure came popping out of the portal, immediately drawing Magnus's attentions. "Alec!" he cried again, momentarily uplifted before he realized that the man before him, though of correct hair and eye color, was still far shorter than he should have been, his hair far longer. He blinked, eyes darting between the three odd Shadowhunters before he finally found space enough to catch on. "... _Isabelle_?" he corrected, looking back at the second man in astonishment.

Izzy smirked and chuckled knowingly, "Sorry to disappoint."

Which meant that...

As the fourth and final figure began to form in the portal, Magnus sucked in a deep breath, lips pursed in rapt anticipation. He didn't really know why he was so tense - the uncertainty of the whole thing, he figured. As Alec emerged from the portal, the veil around that uncertainty peeled away as if in layers. First, the silhouette, tall and curved. The clothes were familiar enough - one of Isabelle's tamer outfits, offering but a single, taunting tease of rounded flesh. The thick and curling black lines of Shadowhunter Marks floated along pale skin, dipping in and out of form-fitting garments: in particular, the long and angular Deflect rune decorating a sloping neck like a choker necklace. The final details stared out at him from a frame of short, tousled black hair, wide with an intensity Magnus couldn't recall seeing since the long-ago day he unexpectedly burst in upon a Shadowhunter wedding.

"Alec!" Magnus gasped, immediately sweeping to his boyfriend's side with not another thought spared for anyone else in the room, nor even the portal still swirling behind them. Instinctively, his hands reached out, yearning to pull Alec in to a tight hug to welcome him home and tell him he loved him and assure him everything would be okay. He stopped short only at the last moment, catching Alec's subtle wince just in time to freeze his hands mere inches away from Alec's arms. Up close, he better understood the intensity he saw in Alec's eyes, and gained an idea of what might have put it there.

"Alec," he replied again, his voice softer and kinder, sympathy furrowing through his brow. "You're..." He wanted to say "beautiful" - after all, he  _was_ , every bit as much as he'd always been. But the anxiety and the fear and the sheer discomfort he saw in those eyes told him better than to offer such pleasantries at a time like this, and so instead he finished, one hand reassuringly laying along Alec's arm, "...going to be okay. We'll find a way to fix this, I promise."

Alec visibly relaxed at Magnus's words - he hadn't even realized just how tense he'd been this whole time. "Yeah," he murmured, the honeyed timbre of his voice still unnerving him. He grit his way through it, focusing on his cat-eyed ray of hope, and managed a small smile. "Thank you."

"Of course," Magnus chuckled, banishing the portal with a wave of his hand. He took a moment to consider his words, eyeing Alec head-to-toe. "I can see this is deeply bothering you." He turned to the others - Jace and Isabelle appeared mostly aloof about it all, but Clary shared a similar clench of her jaw, to which Magnus offered an acknowledging nod. "I'll consult my texts immediately. In the meantime..." Another wave of his hand sent a sweep of blue smoke around the group, depositing in each Shadowhunter's hands a warm, fresh cup of coffee. "It's shouldn't take too long, but please, make yourselves at home." After a final look to each of them in turn, a hopeful smile accompanying his gaze towards Alec, he swept gracefully through the loft to the room where he stored his more ancient texts - the ones he didn't often require when dealing with clients.

"Thanks, Magnus!" Izzy brightly chirped as he departed. She took a sip of her coffee, the taste bringing to her features a look of pure delight. "Mmm... Damn, Alec, he sure makes one  _hell_ of a cup of coffee!"

Alec managed a small smile, idly turning his mug in his hands - the familiar warmth was comforting, but he didn't really feel like drinking anything. "Yeah," he murmured, then looked up to try and distract himself. His eyes fell on Jace.

Unsurprisingly, his parabatai had taken to examining himself in one of the room's many mirrors, running his fingers through the longer strands of his hair and studying how their drifting lengths framed his feminized face. If Alec focused upon their connection, he found he could sense a bit of what Jace was feeling - which, for the time being, amounted to little more than an idle curiosity. He himself wondered if Jace could detect his anxiety, or had even bothered to check.

Beside him, Clary folded her arms and released an unamused huff. "You're really not at all concerned about any of this,  _are_ you?"

Jace looked away from the mirror with a peaked brow. "No. Should I be? Magnus said he'd take care of it, didn't he? Besides, I look  _hot_!" He turned around to face them fully, arms spread and grinning wide at Clary. "I do, don't I?"

Clary's face went beet-red. "Th-That's... That's not... !!!"

Alec caught a smirk from Izzy.  _Called it!_ He rolled his eyes and shook his head, then turned a glare upon Jace. "You can't just expect Magnus to clean up after us all the time, you know."

"Why not?" Jace replied in that infuriatingly blank manner of his. "One of your Dating a Warlock perks, isn't it?"

Alec was about halfway through a very physical answer to Jace's question when Magnus suddenly burst back into the room, his hands overburdened with his cauldron, mortar & pestle, and a small army of various ingredients. "Well!" he cried out, clearly exasperated. "I've got good news and bad news, kiddies. The  _good_ news is this particular spell happens to be very well-documented in just about every Seelie text I own."

"...And the  _bad_ news?" Alec pressed worriedly. He swiftly crossed the room and helped Magnus set up his station, in part because he wanted to be helpful but in part because he needed something to do, something to distract himself and expend all this anxious energy. "Did it say how to reverse the spell?"

Magnus paused to look gravely into Alec's eyes, then turned to address the group as a whole. "Unfortunately, the spell is a charm, not a curse. Only the person who cast it can remove it."

" _What_?!" all four of them gawked, Alec's proximity and intensity startling Magnus enough to make the Warlock jump. Apology briefly drifted across Alec's features before panic consumed it whole. "So, what do we do? We can't stay like this forever! I can't... I can't  _function_ looking like... !" As if anyone needed any explanation, he gestured manically to himself, highlighting the taxing heft of his chest in particular.

"I know, Alexander, I know," Magnus tried to calm him, hands lifted but careful to not invade his boyfriend's personal space in this moment of heightened anxiety. "I'm sorry. I should have prefaced that by saying charms eventually  _wear off_ \- it'll just take some time, is all."

It helped - a bit. Still, Alec's hands grasped at the air to his sides, desperately searching for something to occupy themselves.

Clary stepped up beside him, doing a far better job of managing - or at least swallowing - her own anxiety over it all. Arms folded across her chest, her eyes flickered between Magnus and the supplies he'd strewn across the small table. "What's all this for?"

He offered Alec a tiny smile before referring to her, a spindly hand circling through the various items he'd collected. "Well, I can't  _remove_ the charm, but I can speed it up." He deftly began plucking baubles and baggies and dumping their contents into the cauldron. A snap of his fingers drenched them in already-boiling water, and then he was grinding a root in the mortar, expertly working it into a fine grain with the pestle. "Normally, this particular charm takes anywhere from one to three days to wear off, depending on how much magic was put into it.  _This_ , however..." He trailed off a moment, crouching so he was eye-level with his cauldron while he carefully poured the ground root into his potion with one hand, and gently stirred the mixture with his other. Something sparked, and he quickly stopped pouring and set the mortar down, then frantically went about dumping and stirring the rest of the ingredients. "... _should_ speed things up significantly."

"How much?" Alec pressed, trying his best to restrain the urgency in his voice - the very last thing he wanted was to give Magnus the impression he was somehow mad at  _him_. Unfortunately, that sort of thing was far easier said than done under the current circumstances. "When will it wear off?"

Magnus's eyes flickered between his potion and his boyfriend, offering a small, patient smile. "Well, if I've measured everything right, it should wear off sometime tonight. Not in time for dinner, unfortunately, but..." He leaned over to catch a whiff of the potion. Apparently satisfied, he clapped his hands, and four teacups appeared at the corners of his table, precariously balanced upon their saucers. "...certainly by bedtime, at the very least!"

"Oh, good!" Jace cut in, striding swiftly over. "I figure I'd look a bit obscene trying to dress  _this_ in my usual sleepwear." He wove his hands over his chest for effect.

While Magnus divided the potion across the four cups, Izzy finally joined the others by the table, her stride as casually confident as always. "Hmm... Wonder if that'll be enough time to take this body for a little joy ride... ?"

Alec elected to keep his mouth shut about his sister's ability to do just that. Instead, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath to steady himself, then looked Magnus directly in the eye to convey his sincerity as clearly as possible. "Thank you, Magnus."

A great relief softened Magnus's smile as he held Alec's gaze for a brief moment before handing out the filled teacups. "Be sure to drink the whole thing in one gulp," he cautioned. "Your bodies need to ingest all of the ingredients all at once, together."

Drinks in hand, the four of them exchanged looks with each other, as if the success of the potion depended on all of them being together on it. At the end, Clary offered them all an encouraging smile and lifted her cup. "Well... Bottoms up!"

They all lifted their cups with hers and then, in near unison, threw back their heads and downed the potions. They'd all anticipated an unfavorable taste of one kind or another, but even still they each shuddered to varying degrees at the hot, bitter fluid sloshing down their throats. The texture didn't help either, a bit too thick to be water or even milk but not quite thick enough to be a slush or milkshake - more like some kind of poorly mixed protein drink. When they were through, they half-gasped, half-gagged, doing their best to return their teacups to the saucers as delicately as possible, fighting the impulse to throw up whatever concoction they'd just subjected themselves to.

"Ugh," Isabelle finally groaned when she regained herself. "You'd think folks would've figured out by now how to improve the taste, at least."

" _You're_ one to talk," Jace muttered, delivering a quirked brow at her.

Magnus sighed, shaking his hands as he dismissed his table's contents with quick waves of his hands. "In any case, you all should get some rest. It'll help your bodies process the potions, and may expedite the reversions."

"Aw, well where's the fun in that?" Izzy chided, passing him a playful wink.

Clary rolled her eyes, then turned to Magnus with a grateful smile. "Thank you for this, Magnus." She glanced quickly between him and Alec, then urged Jace and Izzy towards the door with a nudge of her head. "We'll get out of your hair now." As she passed Alec, she laid a comforting hand on his arm and an encouraging smile. "Rest up! We'll see you tomorrow?"

He delivered a short, quick nod, mouth tight. "Yeah." He was still a good bit tense, but already felt far better than he'd been that morning. He wasn't back to normal yet, but knowing he would be soon helped. Swallowing some of the last dredges of his nerves, he belatedly assured them, "Text me if anything comes up at the Institute?"

"Of course!" Jace replied with that persistently confident grin of his. He offered a wave of his own, and then vanished beyond the loft's threshold with the others.

Once they were finally alone, Alec released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and collapsed into a nearby couch. "What a mess," he muttered, head propped up by thin fingers. He winced a bit at the unexpected length of his nails, but settled back in soon enough, his exhaustion far outweighing his discomfort.

Magnus's eyes swept over him, filled with worry. "...Well, at least it'll be over with soon?"

"Yeah," Alec murmured, finally glancing up and managing a half-smile. "Thank you for the potion. I can't imagine enduring this for three  _days_!"

At that, Magnus laughed, then twisted around to settle back into the couch beside Alec. "It  _would_ be rather awkward, wouldn't it?" It wasn't until he looked back at Alec that he realized a peculiar look in his boyfriend's eyes, something more than the persistent beauty he'd always seen. Concern pinched his brow, his eyes carefully examining every clue they could glean from Alec's manner and posture.

"...What?" Alec asked. "Is something wrong... ?"

"I was about to ask you the same," Magnus replied with something of a listless sigh. He blinked, an idea occurring to him, and then was suddenly smiling again. "I think I know just the thing!" he chirped, hands lifting in the air beside him.

A bit nervous, a bit anxious, a bit curious, Alec abruptly shifted into an upright position, watching Magnus with a more studious attention. "Magnus? What are you doing... ?"

His boyfriend turned to him with a smile, offered a wink, and then snapped his fingers. A gentle, blue mist spilled over him in an obscuring veil, like fog rolling lazily over the country hills. As it descended, bit-by-bit Magnus emerged, and at first it seemed nothing at all had changed. By the time it passed his eyes, however, Alec's chest tightened with alarm at the subtly altered bone structure of Magnus's face - the lengthened lashes, the rounded cheeks, the narrowed chin, the sloped neck. Even though Magnus's explosively eccentric jacket, Alec could tell his shoulders had dipped, and his chest had swelled, and his waist had condensed. By the time the mist reached his feet and dispersed, Alec found himself staring at a version of Magnus he'd never expected to see - a woman, curved and poised and proud.

Pretty, certainly, but...

He hesitated, frowning slightly. "I... don't understand. Why did you... ?"

Magnus laughed, then leaned back into the couch. "It's helped already, hasn't it?"

Alec blinked again, then looked down at himself. He didn't  _look_ any different, no more normal, but, oddly enough, he...  _felt_ different, somehow... ?

When he said nothing, Magnus explained, "Regardless of your form, you're not attracted to females. The physical responses to attraction can often...  _punctuate_ certain qualities of our bodies." His manner softened then, the almost somber worry returning to his feminized features. "For someone not quite at peace with their body, it can rather... throw things in your face, can't it? So..." He looked down and gestured to himself. "It's not much, but hopefully by removing the attraction I—"

He stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up with an urgent gaze, worried his words had upset Alec. What he saw instead was a smile, the most genuine one Alec had worn all day, and he sighed in relief. "Thank you, Magnus," Alec replied. "It...  _has_ helped, I think." He drew back a bit, looking over Magnus again, then even managed a small laugh as he leaned back into his side of the couch. "I still hate being like this, but I think it'll be much easier for me to relax now, at least."

"Good," Magnus replied. He twisted his hand before him, a remote appearing in his fingers and the corresponding television set popping into place upon a nearby stand. "Something to pass the time?" he asked, offering Alec the remote.

Alec full-on grinned, taking the remote.

" _Absolutely_!"


End file.
